“But how can you like *insert alternative rock band that people think is obscure* if you like One Direction?"
I sit back and ponder this person’s pointed demand as they gaze witheringly at me through tortoise shell, thick rimmed glasses, bookmarking their page in their Bukowski novel. They had a point...How CAN one listen to and enjoy TWO DIFFERENT GENRES of MUSIC? It’s almost as if I have a VARIETY of tastes. That simply cannot be. I sip my kombucha and cry myself to sleep.
Grown, fedora-clad, neckbearded manchildren (was that a bit sharp?) are heralded as supreme connoisseurs of music and are allowed to throw literal temper tantrums when someone suggests The Beatles aren’t God’s gift to the music world but when young girls show their enthusiasm for a band they are undeserving of respect because they are too crazy, too hormonal, and too stupid to understand real music.
For this project, we really wanted to show that what The Fab Four were doing and what One Direction is doing are not all that different - instead of competing our two ideas we wanted to show how alike they really are. Music-wise, these two bands are doing different things and it’s unfair to compare the two but to simplify the matter, they both make incredibly catchy pop songs, they’re handsome, and they’re British. The way fans (generally young girls) respond to these two bands are almost identical. ‘Beatlemania’ is no longer some unmatched force in the pop world, ‘One Direction Infection’ is just as impressive. David Bowie has a really nice yet simple quote about fangirls.
“They’re the salt of the earth, those girls. They don’t sit each night and compare notes on groups, criticising lyrics, asking if it’s valid. They just play the record… yeah, and maybe they dance. I love them. I love them dearly."
So what some of these manchildren are choosing to forget is the fact that young girls played a huge role in the The Beatles career. They are a force to be reckoned with in the music industry. Whether you think a band is talented or not doesn’t always matter because the power of young girls has proven time and time again that their enthusiasm is a driving force that propels people to success. We love The Beatles. We do recognize what they’ve done for music. And we really love One Direction. A lot. Some people want to know if it’s an ironic statement against televised talent shows. Others say this make one lose credibility on musical matters. When people discredit the things someone finds joy in, it invalidates that person’s happiness. So when old fuddy duddy purists become enraged and in hysterics over their band, why can’t young girls be taken seriously when they do too?
All the clips we chose were juxtaposed against each other in order to highlight and heighten the similarities between the two. For part of our performance we did that “Riff-Off” thing they do in Pitch Perfect (2012) where we’d match one word from a song into another (What Makes You Beautiful/Dear Prudence, Little Black Dress/Revolution, Hey Jude/Steal My Girl). We matched the sounds of the old and the modern fans screaming. We matched what reporters were saying about the bands. Our costumes depicted a typical Beatles/1D fan. We timed our piece in a way that paralleled L-cuts. Our choreography was minimal, but effective (I’m thinking specifically about the make up). I guess you could say our driving thought or MDQ if you will was,“What’s so bad about girls getting emotional over boys?” Nothing. 
Olivia Taylor & Morgan Akana
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